The Niagara News is the community newspaper of Niagara College located in Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is created and produced by the students of the Niagara College Journalism program.

A 3-D printed revolution

By CHRIS GERICSEditorial“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. ClarkeThe world is turning into the latest video game.Military drones have advanced the technological aspect of war replacing the need for man-to-man invasion forces. Sending computerized drones to launch an airstrike in Syria while the operator sits in an office building in Washington, D.C. is safer, more accurate and, honestly, pretty insane.Long gone are the days when planes and Hueys flew above, signalling the beginning of their terrorizing missile and bomb strikes, and the citizens had some odds of survival for another day.Today, nobody knows when the drones will strike, but when they do they bring terror and paranoia to their chosen “special targets” because one minute you’re alive, the next you’re a statistic.Access to all manner of instruction for computer programming, engineering and other technology tools is readily available to ordinary people who do a simple Google search and a little more extensive research. Who is to say that a person in your family, or a friend or neighbour couldn’t come up with the latest technological miracle?Obviously, the proper application of the technology comes with an understanding of math, science and program languages but the initial idea could be sparked from a general observation. A recent example of this is that of creating a jet-powered drone by using only a 3-D printer. That unit claimed the record for fastest printed drone, with speeds reaching over 241 kilometres-per-hour.Twenty years ago, such a claim would have been deemed lunacy. Today, it is becoming the norm in helping the world in previously unimagined ways.Additive manufacturing, the legal title for 3-D printing, arrived in the 1980s and has quickly swept up thousands of people creating anything from basic pieces of Lego, to a scientific rendition of how King Richard III would have looked 500 years ago. This technology is not only beginning to revolutionize war, but industry as a whole.We could well be seeing the next Industrial Revolution. Jeremy Rifkin, an American economist and social theorist who has written over 20 books on the scientific and technological effects on the economy and the future of industry, speculates that 3-D printing will cut energy costs significantly.He cites the fact it uses as little as 10 per cent of the raw material needed, in addition to reduced energy costs and the ability to output at a much higher, efficient level.This could lead to a nearly infinite supply of ammunition, medical supplies, rations, or aircraft. With this technology, industry transport costs would fall significantly.Only a short time may pass before we’re ushered into a new technological revolution. Just like a magic trick, it’s only real if you believe in it.